Well, today was install day. Took them to a local shop early, got the car back a few hours later (4hrs of labor).
I didn't have the warmest first impressions... a little fluctuating idle around 600rpm when in park or stopped at a light, and no CEL light on the dash as I was anticipating. I immediately went back to the shop to have it looked over and checked for error codes as I thought I might have a slight misfire. Everything checked out, and the tech recommended I drive around for a little bit to let the car adapt. 4 hours later and about 25 miles of driving, the car is idling perfectly steady, and it seems early kinks have worked themselves out (for the most part, more on this later).

As for sound, it screams [as anticipated]. The car has a very discernable growl in the low RPM's that I believed was missing from the PE. Anything below 4k is completely civil and tame in my opinion, which is exactly what I wanted seeing as I spend 95% of my time driving in this range. Cabin noise is completely manageable and non-intrusive. No noticeable drone at highway speeds. Think PE volume, just a little more noticeable.

However, redline the car and prepare to wake children in China. It is loud. My favorite thing to do with my stock PE setup was driving through tunnels as it truly exemplifies the sound.... well, now my car sounds as if it is ALWAYS surrounded by a tunnel. It is throaty, deep, and noisy. I can overlook the added rasp, as I don't redline too often.

I will wait a little until I give performance opinions. I believe there might be a couple issues that need to be addressed... I have a SES light instead of the CEL which tells me that the O2 sensors might have been installed incorrectly. There is a noticeable smell coming from the headers which I originally assumed might be an unfortunate exhaust leak. However, this smell has subsided a bit after driving more, so it might just be the smell of new pipes (what I'm crossing my fingers for). I want to make sure the setup is 100% correct before giving my definitive opinions and posting videos, etc.
I will give you one thing, and throttle response seems much improved. Needle climbs far faster I believe, but don't want to commit to that as we all know the power of placebo effects.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to assist as best as I can; I'm no tech, so my knowledge isn't that great. I'm gonna have a second look and opinion done on the work, so I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on videos, status, opinions, etc.

Thanks for reading guys!
(I'll be sure to take a video of a cold start in the morning)

Cold Start Video:

In-cabin Acceleration Video:

Slight Revving Video:

Well well well what do we have here?
Time to make things loud... very very loud.

I would first and foremost love to thank Ian AKA Doc K for selling me his brand new, never used MMW headers.

Anywho, gonna be getting these installed this coming Tuesday (2/05) over at SV Concepts. So this page will be updated with initial impressions, more pictures, sound clips, reviews, etc so stay tuned in here for updates.

Probably not going to be getting a dyno done because 1) it's automatic and 2) numbers don't interest me..... I know, you know, we all know that the n52 platform is fairly limited with power potential.

I finished installing mine last night. I wasn't expecting there to be flanges on the midpipes that I would need to cut off... So I'm currently running with a 2" gap between my headers and midpipes. I planned on getting a video of that for everyone but it's literally so damn loud that I can't think of a place where i'd be comfortable revving it even a little. It shakes my doors if i leave them open. Can't wait to fix that tomorrow

I finished installing mine last night. I wasn't expecting there to be flanges on the midpipes that I would need to cut off... So I'm currently running with a 2" gap between my headers and midpipes. I planned on getting a video of that for everyone but it's literally so damn loud that I can't think of a place where i'd be comfortable revving it even a little. It shakes my doors if i leave them open. Can't wait to fix that tomorrow

As the headers come, the shop will most likely cut the flanges off and weld the adapters to them, or possibly clamp the adapter at both ends. If you want to have the ability to go completely back to stock, the adapters will need to be shortened and the midpipe side of them will have to have a 2.25" flange welded to it so it can be bolted to the flanges on the midpipes themselves. The header side will just need to be clamped with 2.5" clamps if this is done. You could weld the adapters to the headers so that they are a true bolt on, but I wouldn't do that unless you really don't like the idea of clamps.

Are you installing a BMS DPFIX along with the headers to keep from throwing a tuner code and getting a CEL?